Name Dropping

June 18, 2000|BY JOHN PARKYN

I read a reference to the death of CATHERINE DENEUVE's sister. Who was she, and how did she die? Just one year older than Catherine, left, Francoise Dorleac found fame at age 18 when she played the lead in a Paris production of Gigi. Soon she was a major star of French movies, appearing with Jean-Paul Belmondo, David Niven and Omar Sharif. Deneuve was in awe of her more vivacious sibling and was delighted when they made a movie together, 1967's The Young Girls of Rochefort. Shortly after filming ended, however, Dorleac was killed when her car went out of control. Devastated, Deneuve buried herself in her work and didn't speak of the tragedy until 1997, when she contributed to a book commemorating the 30th anniversary of Dorleac's death.

Is JULIO IGLESIAS ever going to marry the woman who has borne him two children? After eight years of non-married bliss, the 56-year-old Spanish crooner and his 30-year-old Dutch girlfriend, Miranda Rijnsburger, are getting ready to tie the knot. "Now that our second child, Rodrigo, is born we'll probably marry sometime this year," says Rijnsburger, who lives with Iglesias in Miami. "We think it will be a nice way to kick off the new millennium." Rodrigo was born in April 1999 and his older brother, Miguel, in '98. Iglesias also has two famous adult sons, singers Enrique and Julio Jr., by his wife of eight years, Isabel Preysler, who divorced him in 1979.

A friend says that SELA WARD, of Once and Again, was formerly married to a Miami Dolphin. Is this true?

Ward dated college football star Bob Baumhower, who later played nose tackle for the Dolphins, when they were at the University of Alabama. "I fully expected that we would marry," she says. "I certainly never thought about becoming an actress." Ward's plans changed when she and Baumhower split up soon after graduating and she headed to New York, where her statuesque beauty brought her modeling assignments and acting offers. Though she romanced two well-known actors, Richard Dean Anderson and Peter Weller, she remained single until she was 36, when she married financier Howard Sherman and, a year later, had the first of her two children. "I've been a late bloomer all my life," says the actress, now 43. "I didn't plan it that way, but I'm glad I waited. I've never felt sexier or more desirable than I do right now."

ROMAN POLANSKI's career has been in the doldrums ever since he was convicted of having sex with a minor and fled to Europe. Why doesn't he come back, take his punishment and get on with his life?

Career-wise, there's no question it would be the best move he could make. Polanski has directed only six films in the 23 years since he left Holly-wood, none of them as successful as his Ameri-can classics, Rose-mary's Baby and Chinatown. But as a longtime fugitive from U.S. justice, the 66-year-old director is terrified that the punishment might include time in jail. This fear is based on his childhood memories of life in Poland when, living in a Jewish ghetto, he watched family and friends dragged off to concentration camps - including his mother, who died in Auschwitz. To make matters worse, a return to Hollywood might mean reawakening the memories of the gruesome murder of his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, by the Manson gang in 1969.

Is PETA WILSON's first name real, or does it have something to do with PETA, the animal-rights organization? Also, why is her program called La Femme Nikita, instead of simply Nikita?

Though Wilson is an animal lover, her name has nothing to do with PETA. It's a female version of Peter, which her parents had chosen because they were expecting a boy. As for the series' title, this merely reflects its origins as a 1990 French movie starring Anne Parillaud in the role of Nikita. Enjoy the show while you can, by the way - after four years of kick-boxing her way through the action series, Nikita has been given the chop by the USA Network.